This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: BBC News (Click here to watch clips.)
Sep 23, 2008
The Romans gave us roads, plumbing, wine and irrigation and now it seems they may have also introduced Wales' unofficial icon - the garden leek.
The National Museum of Wales says the Romans probably planted domesticated varieties to flavour their stews.
The museum has recreated a Roman-design garden at the National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon, near Newport.
Source: AFP
Sep 23, 2008
The central Iraqi Sunni city of Samarra which houses a revered Shiite mosque that was bombed by Al-Qaeda has been selected as a world heritage site, the government said on Tuesday.
"The Universal Heritage Committee of UNESCO has agreed to add the city of Samarra to its list of world heritage sites," a statement said.
Samarra, north of Baghdad in Sunni Salaheddin province, gained prominence after the Shiite Al-Askari shrine there was bombed on February 22, 200
Source: BBC
Sep 23, 2008
Many people have compared the current financial crisis with the Wall Street crash of 1929 and the Great Depression of the 1930s that followed it.
Yet current events are clearly not in the same league.
"I don't think so, considering that the Great Depression had thousands of banks failing and people losing their life savings, 25% unemployment and social unrest and tent cities of the poor," says Allan Sloan, Washington Post and Fortune magazine columnist.
Source: NYT
Sep 23, 2008
A week before the American government plans to start a redesigned civics test as part of the naturalization process, a senior immigration official sought on Tuesday to calm nervous immigrants and critics who say the new exam will be more challenging than the current one.
“It’s not harder than the current exam,” said Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the citizenship office at Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that devises and administers the test. “In fact, for some it may be
Source: WaPo
Sep 23, 2008
The Smithsonian Board of Regents yesterday continued to transform its operational structure by electing Patricia Q. Stonesifer, the former chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as the chairwoman of its board.
The position was created more than a year ago in the wake of scandal at the institution. Stonesifer will take over from current chairman Roger Sant in late January.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 23, 2008
A 650 million-year-old reef that predates and dwarfs the Great Barrier Reef has been discovered by scientists who believe it may hold ancient fossils that give an insight into the earliest and most primitive forms of life.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 23, 2008
Brazilian former model and ballerina has described her week-long affair with John McCain when he docked in Rio de Janeiro as a young sailor in 1957.
Maria Gracinda Teixeira, 77, described the Republican presidential nominee as romantic and a "good kisser".
In a 1999 autobiography, Faith of My Fathers, Mr McCain fondly related his whirlwind passion for the beautiful Brazilian, but did not reveal her name.
"We danced on the terrace overlooking
Source: FoxNews.com
Sep 23, 2008
Burma's longest-serving political prisoner, who was freed Tuesday after 19 years behind bars, vows to continue pressing for freedom from the junta's 46 years of military rule.
Win Tin, 78, a journalist-turned-activist who helped found Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party in 1988, was one of at least seven political prisoners released, according to Amnesty International. There are still an estimated 2,100 political prisoners held in Burma, the rights group said.
Source: AP
Sep 23, 2008
Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden says today's leaders should take a lesson from the history books and follow fellow Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to a financial crisis.
"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened,"' Barack Obama's running mate recently told the "CBS Evening News.Except, Republican Herbert Hoover was in o
Source: BBC
Sep 23, 2008
In London's historic "Inns of Court", barristers practise law in the shadow of the distinctive medieval Temple Church. But does English law really owe a debt to Muslim law?
For some scholars, a historical connection to Islam is a "missing link" that explains why English common law is so different from classical Roman legal systems that hold sway across much of the rest of Europe.
It's a controversial idea. Common law has inspired legal systems across
Source: http://www.newsline.com.pk
Sep 23, 2008
Swat – a land of pristine beauty, a prime tourist destination, a celebrated seat of learning, music and melody through the ages and the centre of the glorious Gandhara civilisation – is lost to war.
Known as 'Udyana' (garden) in the Hindu scriptures, the valley has turned into a hotbed of violence since Maulana Fazlullah, a firebrand cleric-turned-Taliban commander, started propagating extremist religious messages through an illegal FM radio station in July 2006, and the Ta
Source: http://www.thestate.com
Sep 23, 2008
Three years ago, an elderly Italian man pulled his van into a South Florida park to sell some rare, 2,500-year-old emeralds plundered from a South American tomb. But Ugo Bagnato, an archaeologist, didn't know his potential customer was a federal agent.
Bagnato flashed the green gems, which were as large as dominoes, and explained to the immigration and customs agent that he had bribed South American authorities and used fake paperwork to smuggle the highly illegal goods into the Uni
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 23, 2008
Fifty-eight of the rings were made for Nelson's friends, relatives and pallbearers after his death aboard HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.
The sale price was some 50 per cent higher than the pre-sale estimate.
The George III gold and enamel rings were made by John Salter, a jeweller of the Strand in London, and distributed by the executors of his will. Three examples are held in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
It was one o
Source: Guardian (UK)
Sep 23, 2008
When a man has so many medals that they already fill his chest, another may not mean so much. But Harry Patch, the last known surviving British soldier of the 3 million who served on the western front during the first world war, yesterday graciously accepted one more, the knighthood of the Order of Leopold, as Belgium's tribute for his services and those of all his dead colleagues.
Patch, who has just passed his 110th birthday, served with the 7th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry u
Source: AP
Sep 23, 2008
Greece has finally taken possession of a chunk of the Elgin Marbles, and now holds renewed hopes of regaining the rest.
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Tuesday presented Greek authorities with a small piece of sculpture from the Parthenon kept in a museum in Palermo, Sicily, for the past 200 years.
The 2,500-year-old marble fragment was one of the works Scottish diplomat Lord Elgin removed from the ancient Acropolis in the early 19th century.
Elgin
Source: Guardian (UK)
Sep 23, 2008
Crews excavating the site of the World Trade Centre for the foundations of a skyscraper have uncovered features carved into the bedrock by glaciers about 20,000 years ago, including a 12-metre deep pothole. Exposing the rock was critical, said Anthony Pontecorvo, a structural engineer. "You want to make sure you're not perching something on a ledge." Cheryl Moss, senior geologist with the consulting engineers, said: "There are areas in local parks that have small vertical potholes
Source: Tehran Times
Sep 23, 2008
Ibrahim Gamard, an American psychologist along with Professor Rawan Farhadi, the former representative of Afghanistan to the UN completed the task after 22 years of work, Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported on Monday.
Gamard in his recent visit to Konya said that he brought “The Quatrains of Rumi” to Konya to show his loyalty to Rumi and regarded this visit as an occasion to thank the 13th century Sufi poet.
The California-based Gamard indicated he was first introduc
Source: Times (UK)
Sep 23, 2008
They are the kind of observations that have occurred to thousands of visitors to London as they dash off a few words to the folks back home: London is a city of soaring costs, endless rain, poor food and weekend rowdiness.
Yet Luisa de Carvajal's description of life in the capital has come to light more than 400 years after she jotted down her thoughts for friends and relatives in Spain and Flanders.
Having lain in a Madrid convent, the notes have been translated into
Source: Telegraph
Sep 22, 2008
A 14th-century recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks is to put online for the first time to give modern-day chefs an insight into the delicacies of the Middle Ages.
Forme of Cury, which was written in 1390 in Middle English, details more than 200 recipes that were cooked in the royal household, including blank mang (a sweet dish of meat, milk, sugar and almonds) and mortrews (ground and spiced pork).
The book is one of 40 rare manuscripts that are bein
Source: AHA Blog
Sep 22, 2008
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has posted reports on the impact of Hurricanes Ike and Gustav on historic buildings in the affected areas, including several National Trust properties. On September 17, representatives of the Galveston Historical Foundation received permission from authorities to visit Galveston Island to assess the damage. They report that the Strand National Historic Landmark District and East End residential district sustained serious flood damage. The Trust is see
